Turing sunflowers are named for Alan Turing, a mathematician that proposed that sunflower heads featured Fibonacci number sequences. Fibonacci sequences of numbers begin with zero and one, and each subsequent number in the sequence is the sum of the two numbers before it. If you would like Turing sunflowers to decorate your yard with a mathematical flair, you will need to know how to plant and care for them.

Steps

Method1

Planting Turing’s Sunflowers

1

Pick out a spot that is sunny and sheltered from the wind. Tall varieties of sunflowers require lots of sun and a sheltered position. Tall flower heads can bend over in moderate winds, which can cause their stems to break.

2

Consider using a heavy container. You can also use fairly deep, large containers and planters but they might need weighing down to prevent the tall plant from tipping them over. Heavy-based pots are better, such as ones made of stone or terracotta.

3

Know that you might find a bit of a mess wherever you plant your sunflower seeds. Birds love sunflower seeds. You may find birds will peck and scatter the seed heads, which can make a big mess underneath the sunflowers.

The scattering of seeds also means that some of your sunflowers may self-sow, which means sunflowers might start growing in the general vicinity of the original sunflower.

4

Keep the frost in mind when planting your sunflowers. It’s best to wait until the frosts are over if you want to plant your sunflowers outdoors.

Alternately, you can start your sunflowers off in a pot indoors in the early spring and then move them outdoors in late spring once all risk of frost is over.

5

Prepare the area where you plan to plant your sunflowers. Weed the area where you plan to plant your sunflower. You can help improve soil fertility by mixing some compost into the soil.

6

Consider planting your sunflowers from seeds. To plant this tall variety of sunflowers, start planting in the spring. You can easily buy packets of seeds in gardening stores or online and they are some of the cheapest flower seeds to buy.

You may have less luck using seeds you have gathered yourself from previous year’s sunflower harvest as these aren’t always fertile.

7

Plant your seeds. Plant the seeds about one inch deep into the compost you have mixed into your soil. Leave about 20 inches (50.8 cm) of space between seeds, then water the area well. Keep the soil moist until the sunflowers have sprouted.

Sprouting can take two to three weeks.

8

Consider planting two seeds at once. Some gardeners like to plant two seeds together as not all of them will sprout. If both seedlings emerge, you can remove and discard the one that looks less strong, or transplant the seedling to another position at least 20 inches (50.8 cm) away.

Method2

Ongoing Care for Turing’s Sunflowers

1

Give your tall sunflowers some support. Once the sunflower gets to be about waist height, you might want to give the plant some support using a tall, sturdy garden stake or cane. Drive this into the ground fairly deeply and then loosely tie the sunflower stalk to the cane.

You may want to tie the plant in another place further up the stem as it grows.

2

Water your sunflowers. Remember to give your sunflower some water during dry periods. Make sure not to over-water your plant because sunflowers do not generally like having soggy feet.

3

Protect your sunflowers from pests. Slugs and snails may attack the young plants so you might consider covering them with a clear plastic bottle with the funnel end cut off to make a homemade cloche. Remember to remove this once the plant starts to outgrow it.

Alternately, consider using pellets or traps.

4

Fertilize your plants. Sunflowers are hungry plants. You can really help the plant’s growth by giving it a weekly feed with a liquid fertilizer. Avoid using slow release or granular fertilizers as these will release nutrients too slowly to benefit the fast-growing plant.

You may find that the sunflowers won’t grow as well the following year because the nutrients in that area have been depleted. Mix in plenty of manure at the end of the growing season to help stimulate regrowth.

Method3

Removing Turing Sunflowers

1

Consider leaving the dead sunflowers for the birds to eat. You should get a good display of sunflowers by the late summer. After that, the flower heads will fade and the petals wither. If you are a generous wildlife gardener, it’s beneficial to birds to leave the plants where they are so the birds can enjoy eating the seeds.

Alternately you can cut the flowerheads and put them on a bird table.

2

Cut the old stalks back. Sunflowers, especially giant varieties, leave a woody stalk behind. Cut this stalk to about knee height with a small hand saw. Then either pull it out of the ground or dig it out. You can compost the stems.

3

Get rid of seeds to prevent self-seeding. Sunflowers may self-seed. If you don’t want volunteer (self-sown) sunflowers in your garden the following year, sweep up any seeds you see.

To stop them from scattering, you may like to lay a sheet under the plants to catch any dropped seeds as you remove the flowerheads and the rest of the plant. Or you can hoe the area when the young seedlings emerge to kill them off.

Method4

Trying the Turing Sunflower Experiment

1

Become familiar with who Alan Turing was. Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician credited with being a very significant figure in the birth of modern computing and artificial intelligence. He made an enormous contribution to code breaking during World War II and his work on breaking the code of the German naval ‘Enigma’ code machines is generally agreed to have helped shorten the conflict by several years.[1]

2

Learn how Turing sunflowers came about. To mark the centenary of Turing’s birth in 2012, a mass-participation science project was proposed by the University of Manchester, where Turing studied. Individuals, groups and schools were encouraged to plant sunflowers to help prove Turing’s theories about the presence of Fibonacci numbers in sunflowers. This would also help commemorate this brilliant scientist as well as prove his work in a 2012 experiment examining 3000 sunflower heads.

Turing's Sunflowers aren’t a special variety. For the science experiment it was proposed that taller varieties were used. These include sunflowers varieties such as Russian Giant, Giant Single and Giant Yellow. All these varieties grow to around 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3.0 m) in height.

3

Consider participating in the experiment. Once the sunflowers are mature, you might like to participate in the science project by examining the seeds.

[| This link] has a good explanation of what you need to do to identify what’s known as the Fibonacci phyllotaxis in sunflowers.